The right dose

Its official, the perfect weekend is a three day weekend. One day to get stuff done around the house, one day to get out and have fun and do something you really want to do (thats maybe not exactly relaxing) and one day to just relax and recover from a busy weekend (best served by a Monday off, Friday off just doesn't quite measure up). That was my long weekend to a T.

Saturday I spent the day working on the house, replacing molding in the upstairs hallway and bedroom. Satisfying work that immediately adds to the decor but is still tough to find the time for amongst the usual daily grind and short but stacked weekends.

Sunday, I rode the famed Sky-Mass loop with Wheaton and Leland for the first time. Quite the ride. logging both my and Leland's longest rides mileage wise and probably logging the most vertical I've even hit before on a single ride as well. Better yet, I had enough left in the legs afterwards to kick out a couple of (very) brief sprints in the last mile or so of the ride. Encouraging to say the least and it has me feeling pretty decent going into next weekends' Stoopid 50 race up near State College, PA.

Monday was, in my eyes the perfect holiday Monday. Aimee and I got up late and drove out to Markham, VA to meet up with Matthew for a relaxing day at some local wineries. We stopped by Philip Carter first, were not that impressed and went on to Rappahannock Cellars where we spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting at a picnic table in the shade drinking 2 bottles of white wine, eating cheese and crackers and some pulled pork sandwiches. So perfect. After that, back at Matthew's place, we spent an hour or two sitting on the dock, toes dangling in the pond, just enjoying the evening breeze as the light slowly began to fade. Incredible.

Still hard to come back to work today, but knowing how amazing the weekend was certainly helps to dampen the blow.

Paradise found (almost...)

Al...most...there!!!

In a mere 24 hours, Aimee and I will be well on our way to San Jose, Costa Rica. Needless to say, the past few days have been pretty excruciating. I tend to fall into the "night before Christmas kid" category for big things like this; likely at this point my coworkers are sick and tired of hearing about my trip, and it hasn't even happened yet!

Everything is all set up though; flights confirmed, bags (mostly) packed, new goodies picked up and passports at the ready. We've got a list of things to look into but no solid plans aside from lodging and transportation and that's just how like it (though really I think we'd be fine without even the lodging set up!)

The view that will hopefully greet us into Arenal/La Fortuna tomorrow afternoon.

The first two days in Arenal will be action packed with beauty all around while it's looking like Jaco will be filled with more relaxation and beech time. Here's to cooperative weather and friendly faces! WeatherUnderground.com shows what looks like a central Florida forecast of a 30% chance of rain and t-storms every afternoon. Should keep things exciting!

Jaco Beach.

In other news, we'll be finding out tonight (hopefully) weather I'll be having a niece or a nephew! Here's hoping I get a nephew (or at least a tomboy) that I can drag into crazy mountain biking and outdoor adventures!

Another local 5k and some fun riding.

Another fun filled weekend. Friday, Aimee and I had massages scheduled for 5pm though Aimee was rear ended by an older couple from NJ on 495 who proceeded to continue driving and ignoring Aimee who was following/flashing lights/etc... at them for the next few miles. Information written down and police called reporting the hit and run and 5:01 she walks into the massage shop. Ah well, a guess thats a decent way to follow up a minor car accident... Right?

Aimee's stiff neck the next morning kept her home while I went and ran in a local 5k being held down around Greenbelt Lake. Unfortunately I found out the Turkey Trot course was not quite 5k distance, missing maybe one or two tenths, so my sub-twenty minute 5k still eludes me! This race on the other hand was a USATF certified 5k course. I ran in my Montrail Mountain Masochists, since they were pretty much the only option I had around and definitely felt like I was running in some clunkers. Could also feel some lingering hot spots from the BRR race, namely my heal and pinky on my right foot.

Other then that I felt alright; not super speedy or fresh but not necessarily sluggish. I started out around 6th or 7th after one guy went out hard for his spectating daughter and wife to see him lead the way to the lake followed by some other front runners. I managed to keep my cool early there and run a more comfortable pace to the lake where I quickly caught and passed the folks who jumped the start. Worked into 4th which I held up until about a mile to go when I caught a fellow Runner's World Forum guy, Josh who was running in his VFF's! I really only caught him because his legs were starting to wear down, this being his longest VFF run to date.

From there I held on to the finish in 3rd for a 20:15 finishing time. Amazingly, this small race had nice tech shirts for all participants AND top 3 + age group prizes! I won a free personal trainer session for my third though we were all jealous of the overall winner who earned a free pair of shoes for his efforts! Wow! I really hope these guys managed to make a little money of their fundraiser for the Greenbelt Nursery School!

After the race I headed down to Rosaryville for a couple hours of trail work followed by a post work ride with Eric B during which I found myself pretty spent. I barely ate anything during the day so when 7pm rolled around Aimee and I began an emergency dinner prep as I was crashing hard.

Sunday I met Darren, Pooch, Tyler and Jamie for some spirited laps at Fountainhead as preparatory riding for the 12 Hours of Lodi Farms in 2 weeks. First lap I rode 32x18 (mostly because I showed up late) and swapped out to a 32x20 for the second. Thinking I'll probably at least start Lodi with a 32x18 since I felt like I spun out too much at FH on the 20 and climbed everything just fine on the 18. Considering FH has much tougher hills then the Lodi course I should be good to go on the 18, though we'll see if I find myself needing to spin up faster out of the tight turns found throughout Lodi.

Office life

My coworkers no doubt believe I've gone a bit extreme, if not completely crazy. It started with heaps of clothing stored in the office, most notably of the running and biking variety.

Box #1

Box #2

Then it was the shoes...

Now, throw in the fitness ball seat and my "stick" which I use while reading and roll my feet on constantly...

And I think we have a critical mass.

Day 5: Snowmagedon 2010

Our trash can has not yet been cleared off. The inside trash can is now full... Here we go.

I've been going a bit stir crazy to say the least. Aimee was in Sand Diego for the initial 3 days of snow lock down so I was entertaining myself with shoveling, BS'ing about getting plowed out with the neighbors and throwing snow at Cassie. I rode the Jamis with sub 10PSI in the tires all three days, the first just around the neighborhood and down to the Safeway, the second looking for the back hoe being used to clear the lots and the third I actually rode out to REI and Chipotle for a break from my daily boredom and unexciting food choices.

An interesting view out the front window. The blizzard conditions are not here right now, which is fine by me.

Beaver Dam was entirely unplowed brining my doubts about Sunday's GW Birthday Marathon running to a screeching halt and holding tight to a not so smart driver who tried to get through untouched 2-3 foot snow in a 4 door Nissan Altima sedan... Um... WHAT??? Yeah.

We finallu got plowed out Monday night; the back hoe finishing our lot up around 1o pm. Aimee got home from Dulles arirport around 11 with a parking spot waiting for her, I crashed out hard asleep and Aimee went to National and picked up her friend who'd also just flown back from San Diego and who couldn't get her car out of the lot and brought her back to our house. Who knew? She woke me up and told me but I'm pretty sure the only acknowledgement she got from me was in the neighborhood of "uuuugghhhh". I barely remembered it the next morning and I'm VERY doubtful I would have been cool with her driving her little Kia down there in the middle of the night on icey roads etc...

I took Katie back down with a shovel in the AM and shoveled/pushed her car out and then came back home and forced Aimee to go to REI with me and Brian who'd come over to escape his own case of cabin fever. I got some yaktrax (which are amazing lifesavers!!!) but they'd broken, presumably since I should have sized up from the recommended size for use with my big hiking boots. Got Aimee and pair and exchanged mine, Aimee picked up some more groceries and we came home.

Now, we're snowed back in with another solid 5 inches and blizzard conditions to remain through the rest of the day. Yum. I don't really think I want to ride the bike in blizzard like conditions...

The Jamis; reporting for duty.

FYI

Just wanted to give my parents, who are off in Paris right now and my girlfriend, who is out on the beach in San Diego through Monday an idea of what they're missing.

I should have bought those snowshoes.

Better late then never

Some things I've been meaning to write about for quite a while that I just haven't found the motivation to put down on (e-)paper.

First and foremost; Christmas was pretty good to me!

Jenny and Brian got me (combined as my bday gift also) the truck box I've been hemming and hawing over for the past year or so. I've yet to pick it out, though Brian and I went to Lowes last weekend and looked at what they had at the store. I think I've decided on a nice Craftsman box that has a better interior then the Kobalts at Lowes with some extra small storage areas and even some trays included. Thanks guys! I can't wait to get it and mount up some lockable fork mount brackets to it so I'll finally be able to secure my bikes to the truck AND have a bunch of extra storage space!

My parents got me a bunch of cool stuff including a few bottles of my favorite wine ("Sangre del Toro" or "The Blood of the Bull"), some emergency survival type gear (following a day of mis-information that appeared to leave them believing I was lost somewhere out in the cold during our super storm back in December) and some workout gear. A cold gear under armour top and fleece are both very welcome to my collection while a pair of Salomon 3/4 running tights offer a bit more versatility to my running options. Finally a pair of REI gaitors worked wonders for keeping the snow and mud out of my shoes during my two exploration runs out in Promised Land State Park a few minutes from the folks place in NEPA.

Better yet, the seem at the crotch of the 3/4 tights started ripping open after 3 runs. When I returned them to REI under warranty they didn't have any more so I got a credit which I used online to buy the same newly clearanced pair of tights for $20 less AND a $20 packable wind/water resistant Sierra Designs jacket. Sweet!

Aimee and I had discussed her buying me a fork for my mountain bike a while back and we'd decided that could be my xmas present from her. She, at some point decided she'd rather have something to give me christmas morning and since the fork won't be in till likely late February, pushed the fork back to be my birthday gift. Christmas morning I was surprised to find a new Garmin 305 with my name on it!

I'd been batting around the idea of getting a garmin for quite a long time but just had never really been willing to spend the money on it (I'm getting much more frugal as I age here). I took it, along with my new gaitors and trail knickers out for a test run that afternoon and again before coming home and found it to be pretty great. Running trails which I didn't know and had no reasonable idea of mileage, the garmin was very helpful. Further use has helped me to dial my mileage and pace information on my usual run reviews plus allow me to better monitor my pace while I'm out there. The elevation data is good too, mostly showing me how little elevation change I actually get in my runs.

I think it helps to motivate me in my quest to log more miles this year and gives me a bit more perspective as to exactly where I am in relation to surrounding areas (I get relatively lost running on trails) on my trail workouts. It's also got the heart rate monitor which so far has NOT told me I'm dead or my heart is going to explode soon. A big step up from my 4 year old Timex HR monitor. So far I'd have to say I like my garmin even more then I imagined I would!

While I'm at it, my folks got me a trainer (basic Ascent Fluid) for my Birthday which I got last weekend. I set it up and threw the cross bike on it (since that was at home and available) though the trainer doesn't have resistance adjustments so the trainer riding will generally likely be on a geared bike. It's also a bit loud for my far from sound proof wooden frame town home but hopefully a vibration dampening pad and smooth road tires (as opposed to my cross knobbies) should help me out there.

I picked up a set of Darren recommended Forte GT2 Kevlar tires for my winter riding for $11 per at performance bikes. So far they're pretty decent and the extra volume of the 28's lets me run them soft enough that they're not as bone jarring as I was afraid of. Hopefuly this will translate into some extra riding this winter and spring as I don't have to worry as much about flats.

SO far I've started off the year right for my running. Ramping up my mileage for the February 14th marathon has me steadily increasing my weekly mileage up to around 40 miles this week with a long run planned for the weekend of around 20 miles. The last 2 weekends I ran the marathon course, though poor night and morning before nutrition (read: alcohol and coffee) left me feeling a little worse then I would have liked later on, I think overall I should be in decent shape. Better yet I should be easily able to knock off over 20 minutes from my previous and only marathon.

So far my 2010 mileage is just over 90 so I'm well on my way to increasing my annual mileage so long as I can keep up the consistency.

Bull Run Run initial registration opens in 3 days! Can't wait!

Presidential Run

Sometimes I forget what I have the opportunity to see during my usual lunch runs.

A lot of people in this country (and the world for that matter) would consider this a vacation...

Wash board work out

Ever just jump in the shower with your clothes on? Yeah, me neither; at least not that I remember (Mom, got any good stories?) Well, that changed last night after my 11 mile Sunday evening trail run when I did just that; socks, shorts and shirt.

Three weeks ago the pump on our washing machine died mid-load leaving a bowl full of dirty (smelly) wash water to drain by hand. The current set up has the washer in the corner in the kitchen, and its a 24 inch unit as opposed to the more common 27 incher so a quick and cheap used replacement has been a bit hard to come by. On top of that I have plans to move the laundry facilities entirely into the utility closet which will require about $2k in plumbing work which I can't really swing at the moment, so, long story short we're living without a washing machine.

My $15+ 3 load trip to the laundromat yesterday (only wash, no dry) made me realize the folly in more regular trips to said laundromat so after my run I just hopped on in the shower, clothes and all and along with a bowl of soapy laundry water I proceeded to hand wash and rinse my garments. Gotta say, it was about as wierd as I expected to get in the shower with my clothes still on and there was a nice slick tub floor as a result of the relatively thick laundry detergent soap but otherwise it seems to have worked out alright.

Anyway, I already hang dry all my technical fabric clothing and wool socks so I guess from here on out it'll be a wash board work out following up my regular activities. I do think though that from here on out I'll need to shift that job to the kitchen sink. It was kind of like shaving my legs in the shower; a whole lot of water used, without really putting most of it to use.

Weekend recap

I've been upping my running miles for the last few weeks/months, capping off my build up this past weekend with a 23 miler on the Potomac Heritage Trail. I wasn't breaking any land speed records (my total run time was right around 5 hours), but considering the terrain, my limited knowledge of the trail system and the self supported nature of the run I consider my progress on this one to be pretty good. Most of the trial was pretty rooty and rocky with some sections downright treacherous including some pretty serious rock scrambling up a water fall (Cass actually swam one portion of the scramble while I went up and over some boulders in the way).

In the end I basically covered the entire PHT from Roosevelt Island out to 495 and back with a few somewhat lengthy off-shoots mixed in for good measure. In some trail running advice forums I've been following lately I've seen an abundance of the attitude, "there are 2 types of trail runners; those who have (and continue to) fallen on occasion and those that will." Being as how I'd yet to take a trail running spill I kept my mouth shut so as not to jinx myself.

Saturday's run, turned out to be the one. Ironically enough, it wasn't any of the steep or technical tough spots in the trail that got me. Instead it was simply a damp log with a slightly downhill angle to it that took me by surprise as I planted my full weight on my left foot on top of it. The resulting slam down on my knee was worrisome for a minute but once the initial shock pain went away I was left with what amounted essentially to a skinned knee and maybe a little bruise.

15 miles later I was still going strong with no ill effects aside from the occasional strange look after finishing while stopping in a gas station for a drink and some ice for the bath tub at home.

Sunday an easy ride at Wakefield with Vinny and Chris (Leland) showed me just how tired my dogs really were and Monday's cloudy day saw me stuck in a rut with no motivation to leave the couch aside from a very small bit of bike work in the morning with Brian.

Some semi related tid bits:
-the thompson seatpost on the Jamis is perfect, w/ just the right amount of layback.
-I'm feeling good with wider and lighter FSA XC-190 bars on the Jamis and felt good slipping between tight trees at Wakefield on Sunday's ride.
-The WTB Weirwolf tires are feeling pretty supple, connecting well and definitely feel better on the front end in comparison to the stock ignitor's I've been riding.
-My Hardrock's held up nicely to their longest test yet and while the roots and rocks of the run really put them to the test, they seem to be able to handle the load with minimal forefoot discomfort for me.
-The redline is being built back up, now with my EA-30 riser bar off the Jamis, some flat bar brake levers I had lying around, my spare single speed crank set from the fixed gear I also had lying around, the matching ea30 seat post and wtb saddle from the Jamis (both lighter then the other stuff I had on the bike), new cheapo brake cables and housing and a Forte single speed conversion kit I picked up at Performance. I know I'd never be able to win a cross race on my converted SS with flat bar like Jonathon but at least now I can look somewhat like him (minus the tight skeleton skinsuit and podium candy of course). (Halloween is coming though and facial hair options are being considered).
-The fixed gear is finally mostly back together after nearly a year of languishing in the bike room and shed. Once I get a new spoke installed in the rear wheel (replacing the spoke that has been busted probably for well over 2 years) I will once again have a fully operational 'fixie' though now with much less friendly terrain to ride it on (considering it lived at Aimee's place on Capital Hill up until September).

And that's about it.

This coming weekend I'll be in Florida celebrating my high school buddy's demise... I mean wedding. He mentioned going sky diving the day before the wedding. Said something about making sure God gets the opportunity to correct his mistake if necessary... Not really sure what he means there.

Want to help raise a $Mill for Cancer research?

Start a twitter account and add Drew Carey. I'd say it's worth it no matter what you think about twitter or Carey.

Read up on it here.

Add Carey here.

Heck, it may even make you feel cool. I just made my account two days ago, haven't even posted a single tweet and I already have 28 followers! Man I'm cool!... Tweet. @kmaxtrax

Never a dull moment

This past weekend was the annual Head of the Ohio regatta up in Pittsburgh, PA. Since it's our home town race, the Duquesne crew team has always used this as our Alumni race as well, and for four of the last five years now I've managed to get up to the race for a reminder of just how painful a 5k race can be in a boat (the exception was last year when the 1/2 IM in New Jersey conflicted with the HOTO, pain was still to be found).

This year's race was looking to be a good one. The day was sunny and fairly warm with highs in the mid-sixties, though the wind was looking like it could pose some issues. After a warm up from the finish up to the start (I already had a couple of large blisters on my feathering hand), we abruptly cooled back off sitting in the chilling wind waiting for our race to start, joking with some other crews (our cox even convinced a bowman from Mercyhurst they'd be disqualified if they didn't get their bow number back on the boat after it fell off and was floating five feet out from the side of the boat. He actually climbed out on the bow to put it back into the number slot on the tip of the bow... I could see the boat breaking underneath him...)

We finally got near the shoot and eventually were heading for the course, the blare of the starting horn and CMU's alumni 8 ramping things up behind us putting us all back in the zone we'd been away from for so long. The next thing you know we hit the remnants of the recent tsunamis and water was crashing over the gunnel's from both sides simultaneously, hitting riggers, oars and anything else that stood in it's way, including Joe's (coxswain) face and open mouth, leaving him spitting and sputtering as we headed down the river.

A few hundred meters in I was thinking to myself how these were by far the worst conditions I'd ever rowed in and I couldn't believe how badly it was going. On the other hand we were walking away from CMU without a problem so we must still have been doing relatively well. Just as Im thinking that I notice a shoe and a shirt float by, just inside the reach of our oars. Then another shoe... Isn't that... Ours??? Teddy's?

Huh, now that's strange, why'd he do that? We going to see him floating by next?

Hundred or so yards further and the water pouring in from behind me filled in the blanks on that one. Teddy's shoe's floated out of the boat, Teddy himself was rowing essentially underwater and the remainder of the boat was quickly joining him. It took a few seconds for everything to happen but soon we were sitting chest deep in the shell floating 6 inches underwater waiting for the officials and rescue boats to load us up and pull the boat back to the boat house. While we were sitting there waiting at least one other boat swamped further down the course and later we heard the remainder of the races were canceled after our Men's Open 8 race.

It was an interesting thing to experience though in retrospect that was the first crew race I (we) ever started that we didn't finish. It hits a lot harder when I thought of it like that. Last year the race was called while the alumni were sitting in the starting area waiting to start so this is two consecutive years with no finish for the alum. What's even worse is we were still walking away from those punks at CMU even with a few hundred extra pounds in our boat, yet they still beat us (with their dead last finish in the race). Ouch... Next year, not only do we finish, but we beat the PANTS off of CMU. You hear that boys? I'm calling you all out!

To bad we swamped so far up river their are no pics of us sinking or sunk... Hopefully soon I'll have some bailing water shots to share. Careful though, I'm warning you now; I'm not wearing a shirt in them.

For all my facebook friends (and associates) out there...

EMC OPSEC ALERT

Facebook Phishing Scam

Internet imposters are perfecting the technique of impersonating friends on social networking sites like Facebook, with lucrative results The scam involves a notice appearing on the wall of user profiles as a message from a friend, saying “Hey, I got a new Facebook account. I’m going to delete this one, so add my new profile” then with a link that appears to be a link to the new profile. The actual link goes to a URL on view-facebookprofiles.com, a domain registered (and who is protected) on Namecheap and hosted at Softlayer that looks identical to the Facebook login page:

Users fooled into resubmitting their Facebook details on this page then have their Facebook accounts hijacked and all of their contacts receive a similar message, propagating the phishing scam. . Victims are losing thousands of dollars. Emotional e-mail pleas sent by imposters, such as “I’m stuck in London and I’ve been robbed, help me,” have become so effective that the FBI last week issued a warning to consumers about social networking sites.

The scam works because personal e-mail and Facebook messages from friends carry with them an air of legitimacy that other Internet communication does not. The impersonators send the message asking for money or account information from your actual account, your photo appears beside the message.

Here’s how to avoid being a victim,

*Never send money to an individual, even a friend, using Western Union unless you are ready to never see it again. There are no security measures in place to protect those who wire money that way, and there’s no way to recover funds send through Western Union that end up in the wrong hands.

*Don’t believe your e-mail, even if it comes from a friend. Any unexpected greeting cards, solicitations, or offers you receive should be treated with complete skepticism. Before you click, call and ask “Did you send this?”

*It’s a good idea to have two e-mail contact addresses on file with Facebook, so you have a better chance of reclaiming a hijacked account if you become a victim. Criminals who hack accounts usually change the password to lock out the rightful owner. Facebook will use the secondary e-mail in an attempt to determine the real owner of the account.

Facebook has also set up a special page to deal with account hacking.

Careful people.

My heart rate monitor apparently believes I'm super human... or dead.

I've had a Timex Iron Man w/ HR for a few years now, although it's been out of service with a dead chest strap battery for the last year or so. Recently I got a new battery for it and figured I'd start using it for some targeted training. You can set HR zones based on your estimated max HR and then let the watch remind you when you leave that zone. All seems fine and dandy, if it were only so easy.

Today I decided to get in an easy run, the first since my slight muscle strain from Nation's, and set myself up to keep my HR in zone 3 which is 137 to 156 bpm. Generally my normal running puts me in the low to 160's so I'd be going a bit easier then my normal pace. For the first mile it was going alright with me going over occasionally, generally a beat or two per minute. The next thing I know I'm rocking a 215 HR and the darn thing won't shut up. After about a minute of constant beating I gave up on it turned it off and proceeded to finish up my lunch run. Of course that means I ran the rest of my run significantly harder then I planned and my legs are now nice and tired for my ride tonight.

I'm curious as to whether this is just my HR monitor being a piece of junk, or if maybe I should be worried about a heart murmur or something. Maybe of course I really am just a super human with a max of 240 bpm like my monitor is fond of reporting to me but somehow I think that just isn't it. But seriously, is there anything to my fears here or is it really just a piece of &*^@! (horse poop).

The rate, even when seemingly working will jump around quite a bit. Say from 167 to 150 and back and even after telling me I was rolling at 215 for a few minutes, it next said something along the lines of 145. What is this all based on anyway? Beat to beat? The number of beats over the last minute? The last 5?

I guess maybe its time to start thinking a bit more seriously about one of them GPS/HR watches...

Post race blues

I'm going a little stir crazy this week. That cramp from the swim during the Nation's Tri on Sunday seems to have developed more into a strain, leaving me with a sore calf muscle still 4 days later. Not a real big deal but with visions of my torn hamstring and the resulting bruise after I kept going on it for the first couple of weeks of football training camp keep me from tempting fate too much on this one.

My hopes of running my first trail "race" on Saturday are fast disappearing. Here's hoping this clears up and I can start getting back out there on it.

This is the first injury I've had in a few years and boy is it frustrating!

I've also found I've been abnormally hungry all week. Monday evening I got in an easy ride at Rosie with Alex before the team meeting at Family Bike Shop (title sponsor for the upcoming DCCX by the way! Awesome!). I think Monday in general I didn't get in enough calories in general and come Tuesday I was feeling it. I splurged on crap food a bit on Tuesday which just made me feel crummy and still hungry. I'm trying to get myself back into the groove, but not being able to get out and workout I find myself wanting just eat instead (and junk food no less).

What you're missing

Despite what it looks like, I'm not entirely ignoring my blog (aside from the occasional GJ review). I just haven't had a lot to say myself.

In a new feature on the blog, I've been sharing all kinds of interesting, inspiring and informative articles from a variety of sources. Some things are simply book marks to remind myself of an article I want to read while others are things I found found interesting and thought you might to.

If one of you 5 faithful readers (hi Mom) happen to be lazy like me and use an RSS reader like google reader you can add my shared items feed to your reader. Otherwise go to my blog site and check out "Kevin's Shared Items" on the left hand side near the top. Chances are you'll find something there that interests or inspires you too.

Some bits and pieces...

A couple of random things.

First, I've been struggling a little bit with finding the perfect socks for running in my Montrail Highlander trail shoes. They fit great and feel great all around, except for my right pinkie toe. Any run over about 6 or so miles and my toe starts to get rubbed a bit too much and blister is either formed or rubbed off.

Saturday for my long run, due to all my other decent athletic socks being in the wash I decided to try the supposed winter weight DeFeet Woolie Boolies I bought specifically for winter cycling since my feet get so cold in the winter. Turns out they were by far the best socks I've got for the job! My feet felt awesome after the run and never felt over heated by the heavy wool socks. They weren't even as soggy as I would've expected considering my shoes were soaked through by the end of the run. Just a bit of body glide and these socks and it looks like I've found my magic solution.


Sweet.

Another thing. My training log on Runner's World keeps track of shoes and mileage for me so always know where I stand with my shoes. With my run last night I broke 100 miles on my Montrails which I only just bought in June and really started using more heavily over the last few weeks. In comparison, my Nike's I bought back in August of last year have just over 140 miles on them. My Asics which I bought a bit before the Nike's are around 230 miles but unfortunately are exceptionally close to retirement as they're just about broken down entirely. I've heard this is one problem with Asics shoes; much shorter life spans though they are awesome shoes while they last.

The good, the bad and scummy

All week I've been eagerly waiting for this weekend to come. I had big plans and with Aimee in Florida through the end of the weekend, I had no commitments to speak of. Perfect for a couple of long days out in the great outdoors. I tossed around the idea of a backpacking trip with Brian, or maybe a fast packing trip, just me and my pup; 20+ miles on Saturday and another 20+ on Sunday with super minimal gear. Could be pretty sweet, if of course I could work the gear right. Then I was thinking long ride, Shaffer and Hoyles Mill and Black Hills and maybe more if I could figure it out for Saturday. Sunday, change it up with a sweet long trail run.

Then it started raining and any and all of those plans went down the tube. Well, almost all.

While I knew any sort of mountain biking was out for the weekend I figured I could try and squeeze in a long run somewhere. I headed up to Patapsco to see what the trails were like with the intention of heading to Columbia to run some errands if they were bad. What I found were surprisingly tacky and solid trails all around.

So, I donned a lumbar (fanny) pack with a water bottle holder, bungees for my rain jacket and pockets for cell phone and gu's and hit the trails with Cass. I stuck to trails I never ride and trails away from heavy run off and river valley areas and saw tons of areas in the park I've never before seen. After tooling around some of the different routes up between Avalon and the 195 park and ride entrance I headed out the paved Grist Mill trail searching for some different trails and different areas. I found a way across the train tracks and made it up eventually to the Hilton area and headed out further from there.

At this point we'd been out running for about an hour and a half to two hours and it was starting to rain. The trails were holding up and the rain barely seemed to be coming through the leaves so I decided to keep going since I was still feeling good. Headed out a few trails that eventually brought me back down to the paved trail (still grist mill maybe?) and a dam where I circled back around on Buzzards Rock Branch Trail. At this point the rain was starting to pick up so remembering a few key things from a park map I'd looked at back at the Hilton area I headed back in the general direction of where we came from, all the while sticking to different trails.

Eventually we made it back down to the parking area at the trail head (middle?) of Soapstone and started on the final stretch, deciding to stick to soapstone since it was about time to be finished. The cloud cover was starting to make it dark in the woods and it was getting late (much later then I realized). Soapstone was beginning to get a bit nasty though it generally is probably one of the first trails to get bad as the water tends to run and puddle on the trail there naturally.

When we finally made it back up to the trail head a bit over 3 hours later I think both Cass and I were ready to be finished, dry and fed. Unfortunately, some scumbag had decided my truck looked money and that there was probably something of value in it. They smashed my passenger side rear window with a rock (which they left me as a souvenir on Cassie's bed along with a wonderful pile of glass and only charged me a wallet! How wonderful a present.

Oddly enough they left my (outdated?) ipod player sitting in my center console where the wallet was as well as my GPS navigation device which had slid out from under the passenger side seat and was sitting in plan view when the passenger side door was opened (which they had done). Strange... apparently these guys were too good for my electronic devices! Though they did take my ipod car charger I think.

BofA had called me while I was running which I guess I'd missed hearing coming from wrapped in a plastic bag in a pocket near my dairy-aire. Apparently they spent some $70 at MacDonalds before attempting to rack up about $1000 at Walmart. Pretty easy to ID the fraudulent purchases there since I REFUSE to eat MacDonalds and haven't been to a Walmart probably since I was at school in Pittsburgh.

This is going to be a fun week. New driver's license, new work ID, NEW REI MEMBER CARD!!!, new smart trip card (which had some $80 still on it), new health insurance cards, (damn it, they stole the cross I kept from when I was young serving at my church as an acolyte! S@#$!), new AAA card, phew, I just took my social security card out of my wallet a little while back..., oh yeah new debit card, new costco card... Let's see. Anything else? I think that's more then enough. I'll be really pissed if they got my Cosi card.

Ok, I'm done. I think I've blown off enough steam for one night. If you made it this far... sorry!

At least the run was great!

We're all gonna die!

The other day I mentioned my office's pan-flu briefing (you know, where I spread my swine flu germs around?)

Well, this morning while I rinsed my coffee mug in the bathroom sink, the speaker and all around emergency planner guru for our Agency came in and used the facilities. When he came up to wash his hands when he was finished he gave them a 2 second burst of water, dried them off and walked out of the bathroom.

Nice.

This is the same guy who was telling us all on Monday we should sing happy birthday to ourselves while vigorously scrubbing our hand with soap and hot water (for 20 to 30 seconds) everytime we use the facilities to help prevent the upcoming devestation of the pandemic flu!

When it happens I'm totally blaming him.

Dirty swine

A week and a half ago I went to Florida for my buddy Mike's bachelor party, stretched over 4 nights in Orlando and Tampa. Pretty much went as I'd expected with way too much alcohol and high school antics for my old body to handle so my own celebrations were cut down to only 3 nights. Sunday I spent the entire day in bed listening to brain numbing bass coming from the full time DJ at the Tampa resort we were staying at.

I figured I was just tired and hungover at that point. When I came home Monday with a hgih fever and chills and the tell tale signs of the FLU I realized otherwise. Turns out at least half the group came down with some form of the same thing; Mike told me he was sitting at work drooling on himself while staring blindly at his computer screen. I was fortunate enought o have sick days I could use but my feelings of last week are about the same.

So, back to reality, after a one and half day work work I headed to PA to bring up some stuff to the folks and spend a relaxing weekend. Did a little light rowing and kayaking and very brief hike and otherwise just generally rested. Sunday when I got home I tried to run and did 5.5 miles over at GNP with Cass. I had to walk a few times and definitely ran slower then I can remember running but I'm glad I got out and did it.

I still feel like I have asthma and walking up a flight of stairs still leaves me straining a bit for breathe but every day I'm feeling a little bit better. Yesterday we had a pandemic flu briefing at work so I of course made sure to project my coughing out over the entire auditorium so we can get this ish over with; with a flair of irony.

Tonight I'm hoping to get in an easy dirt ride, maybe at Rosie to see how the lungs are progressing. With Nation's tri only 3 and a half weeks away, I'm likely going to have to resign myself to the base fitness level I'm at with maybe a couple more LT work outs thrown in before I have to cut and run with what I've got.